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Top 5 Pros and Cons of a School-Wide Nap Time

By
TI Partners
-
2

College is so hectic that students do not find time to sleep. They have to result to such tactics as coffee to remain awake or constant trips to the tap to wash their faces. Even with enough sleep at night, early morning lessons are too heavy that they drain their energy. It is upon the school to provide a solution that can be monitored. A school-wide nap time is a perfect suggestion.

The nap time is slotted right after lunch. It allows 20-30 minutes of siesta where the student can lay on their desks or such other comfortable places around the school. While the idea might appear unrealistic to some, it is the best way to ensure students concentrate in class and remain more productive. Here are some of the pros and cons of a school-wide nap time to help the institution meet its learning goals.

Pros

1.      Improves productivity

Sleep makes any activity impossible to complete. It reduces the productivity of a student, consequently curtailing the learning objectives. Even the best teacher will be helpless when handling a sleepy student. Nap time ensures that all students are ready for the afternoon classes regardless of their activities the previous night. Students can avoid sleepy afternoons by getting online thesis writing service to help with their homework and increase rest hours.

An afternoon nap is rejuvenating. The body and mind are rejuvenated, making the student more receptive to the content taught in class. By increasing concentration, students will require less time to revise for their exams. They enjoy learning, boosting their career prospects in the process.

2.      Balances all students regardless of their level of activity

Some students have a busier evening than others. As a result, some will be more alert in class than others. Some go to the room to rest after classes. Others join the athletics team or have personal errands to run like jobs or business. A school-wide nap time will ensure that all students are prepared for the coming lessons.

The school-wide nap time is usually 20-30 minutes. However, it will cover for students who may have sleep in the morning watching movies or studying. After the nap, all the indulgencies of these students are wiped out. They can study effectively, boosting their performance.

3.      It is easy to monitor the health and productivity of students

It is impossible to monitor and compel students to sleep early in the evening. As a result, some appear in class fatigued from over indulgence the previous evening. A school-wide nap time will compel all students to sleep. As a result, they can concentrate in class.

Rest and sleep are not left to the students alone. Instead, teachers ensure that all students have a chance to rest and prepare for afternoon class. It will result in uniform and enabled productivity. The school is energetic and enthusiastic about its studies. Consequently, overall performance improves.

Cons

4.      Not all students will participate

School-wide nap time may compel all students to participate but against the will of others. Some students had enough sleep the previous night and my not require any external assistance. By forcing them to sleep, you will be creating a group of disgruntled and grumpy students.

Students who manage their time well consider such measures as a waste of time. They are left in limbo for being forced to sleep. Others wake up tired because they require more time to sleep than you have provided. In that case, each student should be left to manage his sleep.

5.      It is difficult to provide a comfortable napping environment

Students can only sleep on the desks or grass. These are not comfortable settings because they are designed for studies or leisure sitting. During some of the seasons, it is too cold for students to sleep. The minutes are, therefore, wasted.

Discomfort during sleep will also result in inadequacy. The students will be sleepy and might not concentrate in class. The original intention will, therefore, be defeated and the situation made worse. There are better ways to ensure students rest in college and avoid sleepy afternoons.

Enforcing school-wide nap time appears like a noble idea but is double edged. In the absence of a comfortable sleeping area, it will be difficult to guarantee sleep. It might also encourage students to over-indulge in the evening since they will have time to sleep during the day.

Sony Ventures Has Set Aside $10M For Investment in Startups Within The African Entertainment Industry

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
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0

Sony Ventures, also known as Sony Innovation Fund, the corporate venture capital arm of Sony Corporation, has recently announced the allocation of $10 million for investment in African entertainment startups.

The tech giant established Sony Innovation Fund: Africa (SIF: AF), a program that is needed to support and growth of entertainment businesses in Africa.

Unlike Fintech which remains the most funded sector in Africa, Sony has decided to make a foray into the investment of the region’s Entertainment sector, a move that aligns with the company’s mission.

Speaking on the company’s plan to invest in Africa’s entertainment industry, CEO of Sony Ventures Gen Tsuchikawa said that although the company established the Sony Innovation Fund in 2016 to invest in ventures across various business fields, it remains a creative entertainment and technology company whose mission is to fill the world with sentiment through the power of creativity and technology.

In his words,

“The entertainment field has been a key area of focus for Sony Innovation Fund since the beginning and will continue to be. Africa, in particular, has a vibrant community of creators and entrepreneurs looking to invent new ways to enhance entertainment experiences for audiences and that propelled Sony to establish SIF: AF.

“We are exploring investments in these areas because we see great potential and exciting creativity from the creators, entrepreneurs, and teams in Africa, and we want to support that. There is also a growing adoption of technology overall in these areas, which we are excited about.

“Since Sony’s entertainment business group is exploring and supporting young talented creators in Africa, this fund will also try to support those creators and the growth of entertainment business in Africa in various ways such as providing technologies, collaborating with creators, intellectual property, and contents, marketing support, and others which Sony can contribute”.

Sony Ventures’ investment in Africa’s entertainment sector, signifies the company’s recognition of the rich and diverse creative talent in Africa’s entertainment sector.

The tech giant’s Africa-focused fund will serve as a much-needed boost to the continent’s entertainment tech startups, that has struggled to receive consistent venture capital over the years.

For Sony, this initiative can open up new markets and opportunities in the African entertainment space. It may also lead to the development of products, services, and content that resonate with local audiences.

Sony Ventures’ commitment to investing in African entertainment startups is a notable development that has the potential to energize and transform the African entertainment landscape.

The move reflects a broader trend of international interest and investment in the continent’s creative industries and technology sectors.

Democratic Senators tell IRS to speed up Crypto Tax Reporting Rules

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

A group of Democratic senators has urged the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to expedite the development and implementation of tax reporting rules for cryptocurrency transactions. In a letter sent to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig on October 12, the senators expressed their concern about the lack of clarity and guidance for taxpayers and tax professionals on how to report and comply with their tax obligations involving digital assets.

The letter was signed by Senators Ron Wyden, Mark Warner, Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, Catherine Cortez Masto, and Kyrsten Sinema, who are all members of the Senate Finance Committee. The senators noted that the IRS has been slow to update its guidance on cryptocurrency taxation, which dates back to 2014 and only covers a limited range of transactions.

They also pointed out that the IRS has not issued any regulations or guidance on how to implement the new reporting requirements for cryptocurrency brokers that were enacted as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in August.

The senators urged the IRS to prioritize the development of comprehensive and clear rules for cryptocurrency taxation, as well as to provide adequate resources and training for its staff and contractors to handle the increasing volume and complexity of cryptocurrency transactions.

They also asked the IRS to collaborate with other federal agencies, such as the Treasury Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, to ensure a consistent and coordinated approach to cryptocurrency regulation.

The senators emphasized that timely and effective tax reporting rules for cryptocurrency transactions are essential to protect the interests of taxpayers, investors, and the U.S. economy. They wrote: “We believe that providing taxpayers with clear rules of the road when it comes to reporting their crypto transactions is critical to ensuring that our voluntary tax system remains fair and effective.”

BarnBridge DAO votes over response to SEC probe

The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) behind the BarnBridge protocol, a platform for risk tokenization and structured products, has recently held a vote on how to respond to a probe from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The vote, which took place on the BarnBridge governance forum, was triggered by a letter from the SEC requesting information and documents related to the protocol’s BOND token and its distribution. The letter also asked the DAO to voluntarily cooperate with the SEC’s investigation and to preserve all relevant records.

The DAO members had three options to choose from: comply with the SEC’s request, ignore the SEC’s request, or seek legal counsel before responding. The vote was open for seven days and ended on October 12, 2023.

According to the results, the majority of the DAO members (67%) voted in favor of seeking legal counsel before responding to the SEC. The second most popular option was to comply with the SEC’s request (28%), while only 5% voted to ignore the SEC’s request.

The BarnBridge DAO stated that it respects the outcome of the vote and will proceed accordingly. It also thanked the community for its participation and support. The BarnBridge protocol, which launched in October 2020, aims to create a marketplace for risk exposure, where users can hedge against price volatility, interest rate fluctuations, and other market risks. The protocol uses smart contracts to create tokenized derivatives that represent different risk profiles.

The BOND token is the native governance token of the protocol, which allows holders to propose and vote on changes to the protocol’s parameters and features. The token also entitles holders to a share of the protocol’s fees and rewards.

The SEC probe is part of the regulator’s ongoing efforts to scrutinize the crypto industry and its compliance with securities laws. The SEC has previously issued subpoenas and enforcement actions against several crypto projects, such as Ripple, Uniswap, and BlockFi.

Judge rebuffs SBF’s requests to raise lack of crypto rules, as Ethereum’s underperforms against BTC

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

In a setback for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a federal judge has denied its motion to introduce evidence of the lack of clear regulations for cryptocurrencies and the role of FTX in the recovery of the hacked funds in the ongoing trial against Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder and CEO of FTX, a leading crypto exchange.

The SEC accuses SBF of violating securities laws by offering unregistered derivatives products to U.S. investors through FTX, which is based in Antigua and Barbuda. The SEC also claims that SBF misled investors about the security and liquidity of FTX, and failed to disclose that he had access to a backdoor that allowed him to manipulate the prices of the products.

SBF denies the allegations and argues that he acted in good faith and in compliance with the laws of Antigua and Barbuda, where FTX is licensed and regulated. He also points out that he helped recover most of the $150 million that was stolen from FTX by hackers in August 2020, by collaborating with other crypto exchanges and law enforcement agencies.

The SEC wanted to present evidence to the jury that the lack of clear and consistent regulations for cryptocurrencies in the U.S. created confusion and uncertainty for market participants, and that SBF took advantage of this situation to evade oversight and accountability. The SEC also wanted to show that FTX’s recovery of the hacked funds was facilitated by FTX’s relationship with other crypto exchanges, especially Binance, which is owned by SBF’s friend and mentor CZ.

However, the Judge ruled that these issues were irrelevant and prejudicial to the case, and that they would only confuse and distract the jury from the main question of whether SBF violated securities laws by offering unregistered derivatives products to U.S. investors. The Judge said that the SEC had failed to establish a causal link between the lack of crypto regulations and SBF’s alleged misconduct, and that the role of FTX in the recovery of the hacked funds was not material to the SEC’s claims.

The trial is expected to resume next week, with both sides presenting their witnesses and experts. The jury will then decide whether SBF is liable for securities fraud and whether he should pay civil penalties and disgorgement of profits.

In a recent report, K33 Research, a leading cryptocurrency analysis firm, has predicted that ether, the second-largest digital asset by market capitalization, will continue to lag behind bitcoin in terms of price performance and adoption.

According to the report, ether faces several challenges that limit its growth potential, such as scalability issues, regulatory uncertainty, competition from other smart contract platforms, and a lack of clear use cases beyond decentralized finance (DeFi).

The report states that while ether has benefited from the explosive growth of DeFi in 2020 and 2021, it also faces increasing competition from rival blockchains that offer faster, cheaper, and more user-friendly alternatives for developers and users. Some of these competitors include Binance Smart Chain, Solana, Cardano, and Polkadot.

The report also notes that ether’s transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake (PoS) one, known as Ethereum 2.0, is a risky and complex process that could take years to complete and may not deliver the expected benefits. The report argues that PoS is less secure, less decentralized, and more prone to centralization than PoW.

Furthermore, the report claims that ether lacks a clear value proposition beyond being a utility token for the Ethereum network. Unlike bitcoin, which has a fixed supply and a strong narrative as a store of value and a hedge against inflation, ether has an uncertain monetary policy and a weaker brand recognition among mainstream investors.

The report concludes that while ether may still see some positive price movements in the short term, driven by speculation and hype, it will ultimately underperform bitcoin in the long run. The report expects bitcoin to maintain its dominance as the most valuable and widely adopted cryptocurrency in the world.

Polygon Labs, Fuul, Caroline Ellison, Stellar, other Crypto News

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

Polygon Labs, a leading developer of scaling solutions for Ethereum, has announced a new project called ApeCoin, which aims to leverage zero-knowledge proofs (zk-proofs) to create a fast and secure layer 2 network for decentralized applications.

ApeCoin is designed to be compatible with Ethereum’s smart contracts and tokens, while offering lower fees, higher throughput, and enhanced privacy. The project is led by Sandeep Nailwal, the co-founder and COO of Polygon, who believes that zk-proofs are the future of blockchain scalability and interoperability.

The cryptocurrency market is expected to grow significantly in the next few years, and one of the leading players in this space is Ethereum. According to a recent report by Standard Chartered Bank, Ether, the native token of Ethereum, could reach a value of $8,000 by the end of 2026.

The report cites several factors that could drive Ether’s price appreciation, such as its role in decentralized finance (DeFi), its scalability potential with the upcoming transition to Ethereum 2.0, and its increasing adoption by institutional investors. The report also compares Ether to Bitcoin, the dominant cryptocurrency, and suggests that Ether could eventually surpass Bitcoin in market capitalization, as it offers more utility and innovation.

A startup that combines cryptocurrency and fantasy horse racing has secured $5 million in a seed funding round. The company, called Zed Run, allows users to buy, breed and race digital horses that are represented by non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Users can also trade their horses on a secondary market and earn rewards from participating in races and tournaments. Zed Run aims to create a new form of entertainment and gaming that leverages the power and potential of blockchain technology.

The cryptocurrency market has been volatile in recent weeks, as tensions between the US and China escalate over Taiwan and Ukraine. However, Bitcoin has shown resilience, bouncing back from a dip below $25,000 and finding support at the $27,000 level. Analysts say that Bitcoin’s fundamentals remain strong, and that the demand from institutional and retail investors is still high. Bitcoin could benefit from its status as a hedge against inflation and currency devaluation, as well as its network effects and innovation potential.

Stellar, a leading blockchain network for cross-border payments, has announced that it is conducting security audits for its smart contracts’ platform Soroban. Soroban is a layer-2 solution that enables developers to create and deploy complex smart contracts on Stellar, without compromising on speed, scalability, or cost. Soroban aims to provide a secure and reliable environment for building decentralized applications (DApps) that can leverage Stellar’s global reach and interoperability.

To ensure the highest level of security and trust, Stellar has partnered with several reputable security firms to conduct thorough and independent audits of Soroban’s codebase, architecture, and design. The audits will cover various aspects of Soroban’s functionality, such as its virtual machine, compiler, runtime, and API. The audits will also assess Soroban’s compliance with industry standards and best practices for smart contract development and deployment.

Stellar expects to complete the security audits by the end of the year and launch Soroban to the public in early 2024. Stellar believes that Soroban will unlock new possibilities for innovation and collaboration on its network and empower developers to create more impactful and inclusive DApps for the benefit of users around the world.

Fuul, a Web3 protocol that aims to revolutionize affiliate marketing, has announced its private beta launch after operating in stealth mode for several months. Fuul leverages blockchain technology and smart contracts to create a decentralized and transparent platform for affiliates, merchants, and consumers. Fuul’s protocol enables affiliates to earn commissions in cryptocurrency, merchants to access a global network of affiliates, and consumers to benefit from lower prices and rewards. Fuul’s private beta is open to a limited number of participants who can sign up on the project’s website.

Caroline Ellison, the former CFO of Genesis, was accused of fraud and conspiracy in a federal court yesterday. According to the prosecutors, Ellison prepared seven different versions of the company’s balance sheet in the months leading up to its bankruptcy and presented them to various investors and creditors to conceal the true financial situation of Genesis.

The prosecutors also alleged that Ellison received millions of dollars in kickbacks from some of the company’s vendors, who inflated their invoices and paid her a percentage. Ellison pleaded not guilty and claimed that she was acting under the direction of the CEO, who is still at large. The case is being closely followed by Inner City Press, a media outlet that covers corruption and human rights issues.

Uniswap, Galaxy invests in crypto on-chain analytics platform Parsec.

Parsec, a platform that provides on-chain analytics and data for various blockchains, has announced that it has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round led by Galaxy Digital and Uniswap. The round also saw participation from Coinbase Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, CMS Holdings, and others.

Parsec aims to empower crypto users, developers, and investors with actionable insights and tools to monitor and optimize their activities on the blockchain. The platform supports multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, and more. Parsec claims to have over 100,000 active users and 200 integrations with leading crypto projects.

According to Parsec, the new funding will be used to expand its team, scale its infrastructure, and launch new features and products. Some of the planned products include Parsec Pro, a premium subscription service for advanced users; Parsec API, a unified interface for accessing data from various blockchains; and Parsec SDK, a software development kit for building applications on top of Parsec.

Parsec’s co-founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko said: “We are thrilled to have the support of such prestigious investors who share our vision of making blockchain data accessible and actionable for everyone. We believe that Parsec can become the go-to platform for anyone who wants to leverage on-chain data to enhance their crypto experience.”

Galaxy Digital’s co-president Damien Vanderwilt said: “Parsec is building a critical piece of infrastructure for the crypto ecosystem. As more users and developers enter the space, they will need reliable and easy-to-use data solutions to interact with various blockchains. We are excited to back Parsec and help them grow their platform and community.”

Uniswap’s growth lead Ashleigh Schap said: “Uniswap is proud to support Parsec as they build the next generation of on-chain analytics tools. Parsec’s technology enables users to access real-time data and alerts for Uniswap and other protocols, which can help them make informed decisions and optimize their strategies. We look forward to seeing Parsec’s continued innovation in this field.”

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